UK3 The Gauntlet (1e)

Indomitable it stood for centuries, a symbol of order in a world of chaos. Bastion of the pass through the Kamph Mountains, the very stones of the Keep of Adlerweg were the stuff of legends. What evil power had strength enough to take it? How were its defenses swept aside?

Fell creatures now attend the battlements that overlook the only pass between Berghof and the sea.

This is not a pretty problem to be solved by the militia of the local villages. These and more may be needed to withstand the mayhem stirred up by the fall of the keep. Indeed, if the Keep is not retaken, and retaken soon, the Hold of the Sea Princes itself may not be secure.

Now is the time for heroic action. Aided by the Sentinel, former protector of the legendary Guardians of Adlerweg, have you the courage and the determination to rid the keep of its sinister occupants?

For characters level 3-6.

Product History

UK3: "The Gauntlet" (1984), by Graeme Morris, is the third UK-series adventure and the second half of the two-part Adlerweg series. It was run as the final round of the GamesFair 1983 AD&D Open (and won by a RuneQuest fan!). It was then published in 1984.

A Shared History. The history of "The Gauntlet" is largely shared with that of UK2: "The Sentinel" (1983), the first half of this tournament adventure. Like its predecessor, "Gauntlet" is set in Greyhawk, in the Hold of the Sea Princes. It would be the last TSR UK adventure set therein. As with its predecessor, UK3 is also laid out as a few encounter locations with wilderness in between.

The UK Feel. Like many of the "UK" adventures, this one is plot-heavy. In fact, it may be the first TSR UK adventure to have received criticism for that fact, with Graham Staplehurst saying, "I found the the amount of channelling and character manipulation offputting" in White Dwarf #60 (December 1984). He was probably talking about the artifact won in UK2, which tells players what to do at some points in "Gauntlet."

Generally, the UK adventures have been very well received, but if someone doesn't like them, it's probably because of the plot. That said, "Gauntlet" is also more of a hack-and-slash module than its immediate predecessor. As with many UK adventures, this one makes heavy use of Fiend Folio monsters, including blood hawks, ettercaps, a forlarren, an ogrillion, a revenant, skulks, a volt, and finally a giant two-headed troll.

A Huge Siege. "Gauntlet" rather uniquely includes a huge siege with platoons of hobgoblins (and lots of other monsters!) attacking a castle. This sort of thing became more common with the release of Battlesystem (1985), but it may have been a first for TSR at the time of UK3's release.

Artifacts. "Gauntlet" also focuses on two artifacts, the eponymous Sentinel and Gauntlet, even going so far as to making their destruction an important element of the plot. It appears to have been the first TSR adventure with this sort of focus.

About the Creators. Like its predecessor, "Gauntlet" was conceived of by Tom Kirby and Graeme Morris - written by Morris, then edited by Kirby. The two would continue working together in this way in UK4: "When a Star Falls." This adventure also introduces a new production member to the TSR UK team: Phil Gallagher, who would become part of the writing team for later "UK" adventures.

About the Product Historian

The history of this product was researched and written by Shannon Appelcline, the author of Designers & Dragons - a history of the roleplaying industry told one company at a time. Please feel free to mail corrections, comments, and additions to shannon.appelcline@gmail.com.

Scanned AD&D module that doesn't use any features of the PDF format. Unlike other scans this one is pretty clear. From TSR UK I also find this and it's companion module "Sentinel" to be better written and make more sense than a lot of TSR US modules. [...]

The follow-on from UK2, and pays better as part of that mini-campaign. It's a bit more linear and straightforwards than UK2, with a stealth mission into a castle which then comes under seige. LIKED: As with UK2, I love the cartography. [...]

This module was very enjoyable for my group of players. It can be used individually or as the second part of the series. It can fit well into any campaign. I recommend it as it gives the players several options for further adventures. QUALITY[...]

As in films, the sequel is never as good :) UK2 is a good module, this one, is ok as a follow up, i would not play it as a stand alone though. It does however include a battalion-sized attack on a castle, and that's going to be good for those that like [...]

These products were created by scanning an original printed edition. Most older books are in scanned image format because original digital layout files never existed or were no longer available from the publisher.

For PDF download editions, each page has been run through Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software to attempt to decipher the printed text. The result of this OCR process is placed invisibly behind the picture of each scanned page, to allow for text searching. However, any text in a given book set on a graphical background or in handwritten fonts would most likely not be picked up by the OCR software, and is therefore not searchable. Also, a few larger books may be resampled to fit into the system, and may not have this searchable text background.

For printed books, we have performed high-resolution scans of an original hardcopy of the book. We essentially digitally re-master the book. Unfortunately, the resulting quality of these books is not as high. It's the problem of making a copy of a copy. The text is fine for reading, but illustration work starts to run dark, pixellating and/or losing shades of grey. Moiré patterns may develop in photos. We mark clearly which print titles come from scanned image books so that you can make an informed purchase decision about the quality of what you will receive.

Original electronic format

These ebooks were created from the original electronic layout files, and therefore are fully text searchable. Also, their file size tends to be smaller than scanned image books. Most newer books are in the original electronic format. Both download and print editions of such books should be high quality.

File Information

Watermarked PDF

Adobe DRM-protected PDF

These eBooks are protected by Adobe's Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology. To use them, you must activate your Adobe Reader software. Click here for more details.

Watermarked PDF

These eBooks are digitally watermarked to signify that you are the owner. A small message is added to the bottom of each page of the document containing your name and the order number of your eBook purchase.

Warning: If any books bearing your information are found being distributed illegally, then your account will be suspended and legal action may be taken against you.